Pigs, goats, gardens and more: improving nutrition in rural Rwanda
According to statistics, over one-third of Rwandan children are stunted due to chronic malnutrition. In April 2015, FAO Rwanda launched a project to fight malnutrition and stunting in the country's Rutsiro district.
Nyiransengimana in her vegetable garden. (© FAO / Teopista Mutesi)
The joint One UN nutrition project “Accelerating stunting reduction amongst under-two children in Rwanda” distributed chickens, pigs, and dairy goats to beneficiary households, along with basic veterinary drugs and a variety of agricultural inputs. Using the Farmer Field and Life School (FFLS) approach, it also trained beneficiaries in rearing small livestock, constructing kitchen gardens, and cooking nutritiously.
Nyiransengimana Alvera, a mother of three in Nyirabirasi, is one such beneficiary. Through the project, she received a dairy goat, a pig, and the training and inputs needed to build a kitchen garden. Thanks to the garden, she and her family now eat fresh, nutritious vegetables such as cabbages, carrots, eggplant, onions, mushrooms, and spinach every day.
Moreover, Nyiransengimana's FFLS group meets at one of their houses once a month, and contributes a variety of foods to prepare a balanced, healthy meal – including iron-fortified beans, maize flour, cassava flour, amaranth, carrots, Irish and sweet potatoes, eggs, onions, mushrooms, and rice.
“Before I received the animals and seedlings for my vegetable garden, my children would fall sick often,” notes Nyiransengimana. “Now I prepare a balanced diet of vegetables, potatoes, beans, and groundnuts.”
“Life is now good,” she adds.